Regular contact →

Published January 28, 2025  ·  All posts on Jan 28

Another big hurdle is the time and effort it takes to schedule a gathering. In recent decades, participation in groups that allow friends to meet up easily—such as unions, civic clubs, and religious congregations—has dwindled. “One of the really great things about these institutions is they regularize contact,” Cox told me. “You’re there at the same time or for the same kind of meetings … with shared values and expectations for behavior. So it really takes a lot of the work off the plate of the individual.”

~ Olga Khazan, from The Friendship Paradox

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I’ve often thought about social things I could do to encourage bumping into more potential friends. But I have the cart before the horse: We used to have social things we simply did for the sake of those things, and it just happened that we ended up with a lot of friends (of various degrees of closeness.) It doesn’t work to seek friends by trying to hack which social things to do.

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Where does it come from? →

Published January 27, 2025  ·  All posts on Jan 27  ·  

Not every time that we talk about consciousness are we talking about experience. Sometimes ‘consciousness’ refers to awakeness. When you’re asleep at night, or blacked out from too much to drink, you’re not conscious in this sense of the term. Alternatively, sometimes ‘consciousness’ refers to awareness. It’s this kind of consciousness that you lack when you’ve zoned out while driving. You’re awake, but not you’re not fully aware of your surroundings. It’s also this kind of consciousness that activists target when they engage in the process of consciousness raising.

~ Amy Kind, from How to think about consciousness

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I no longer get stuck wondering where did my consciousness come from when I was born. Nope. I’m now stuck on: Where does it go every night when I fall asleep. …and where does it come from each morning that I awake?

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Reality? →

Published January 26, 2025  ·  All posts on Jan 26  ·  

Ever since Plato started telling stories about people trapped in caves, philosophers have pondered the relationship between the mind and reality. How can we be sure that the world we think we know is the real world? After all, we’ve all been mistaken before – a person in a store window might turn out to be a mannequin, or two lines that appear to be curved might actually be parallel – so how can we be certain we know reality as it truly is?

~ D J Hobbs, from How to think like a phenomenologist

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I’m not sure I want to think like a phenomenologist…

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It can also be about empowerment →

Published January 25, 2025  ·  All posts on Jan 25

Until now, she said, the history of medicine has been the history of doctors, whose priestly wisdom has been delivered to clueless, passive recipients as if it was gospel. Cousins’s story reversed that. Psychiatrists had asked him to map his moods for three months, so he developed a simple means to do it online every day and share his mood map with friends. They provided a supportive network, a bit like Weight Watchers. His moods immediately started to improve and became more stable: the act of monitoring had itself produced an effect.

~ John-Paul Flintoff, from There’s an app for that

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I particularly like, “the overexamined life is not worth living,” twist on that old phrase.

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The complexity of relationships →

Published January 24, 2025  ·  All posts on Jan 24

So why did we evolve a large brain if it wasn’t essential for toolmaking? One reason is that existing in a large social group is very mentally taxing. Those who are better at playing the social game will have more access to mates and resources and will be more likely to reproduce. As the groups get larger, so the computational power needed to keep up with the interconnections grows exponentially, as does the stress.

~ Mark Maslin, from Why Humans Are So Smart—And So Stressed Out

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I’m too often stressed out (ever / at all is too often!) It helps to get really clear on what exactly is stressing me out. Because the complexity of relationships is a feature—not a problem—of our expansive, beautiful, wonderful, modern world.

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It’s complex →

Published January 23, 2025  ·  All posts on Jan 23  ·  

So you think your choices have reasons behind them and, if these reasons are good ones, then you think that others, in principle, could see this, too. You recognise in yourself, and think that others should recognise in you, a choice aimed at something worth seeking, and a choice by someone who can make that call. This means that what you are after is ‘good’ not just in a sense confined to you, but visible to everyone. Once the goodness of your choice is visible to everyone, it is a kind of absolute goodness – a goodness that anyone could recognise.

~ Christine Korsgaard, from Philosophers and other animals

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Really complex. The road to hell is marked by unconsidered decisions.

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Autism →

Published January 22, 2025  ·  All posts on Jan 22

Silberman chronicles the history of autism and examines some of the myths surrounding our current understanding of the condition in his new book, NeuroTribes. Along the way, he revisits Asperger’s calculated efforts to save his patients.

~ NPR, from ‘NeuroTribes’ Examines The History — And Myths — Of The Autism Spectrum

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Another facet to an interesting issue.

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The benefit is in the effort →

Published January 21, 2025  ·  All posts on Jan 21

The benefit is precisely in the bureaucracy of it.

~ Matt Webb, from Beaches are for people who enjoy the bureaucracy of going to the beach

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Webb isn’t really making a point about beach-going.

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Personal →

Published January 20, 2025  ·  All posts on Jan 20

Everyone has an atmosphere peculiar to himself, pervaded by all of his characteristics. We cannot radiate anything unlike ourselves or our ideals. The qualities you radiate will either attract or repel people. Your atmosphere will affect your career.

~ Orison Swett Marden, from The Power of Personal Atmosphere

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We could debate whether such atmospheres are a good thing, and what responsibility we each have to cultivate ours. But first, it’s just interesting to study it and wonder about it.

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Curiouser and curiouser →

Published January 19, 2025  ·  All posts on Jan 19

English speakers know that their language is odd. So do people saddled with learning it non-natively. The oddity that we all perceive most readily is its spelling, which is indeed a nightmare. In countries where English isn’t spoken, there is no such thing as a ‘spelling bee’ competition. For a normal language, spelling at least pretends a basic correspondence to the way people pronounce the words. But English is not normal.

~ John McWhorter from, English is not normal

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It had never occurred to me to wonder if spelling competitions existed in any other languages.

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